Emergency Mental Health Sector

Emergency Mental Health Sector of the Specialized Medical Assistance Response Team (SMART)Purpose of the Emergency Mental Health Function
The purpose of the Emergency Mental Health Function is to ensure rapid deployment of specially trained emergency mental health responders during/subsequent to a disaster or critical incident in which a large portion of the population is affected.

Goal of the Emergency Mental Health Function
The goal of the Emergency Mental Health function is to provide psychological first aid, crisis intervention, and critical incident stress management services and support to victims, their significant others, bystanders, the community at large, and emergency responders during the acute period following a disaster or critical incident. Interventions provided by specially trained emergency mental health responders help to mitigate acute stress symptoms and reduce anxiety and fear among the population impacted by the incident. Such interventions are designed to facilitate expression and understanding of disaster-caused stress and anticipated reactions. The provision of emergency mental health also helps those affected to develop and/or implement adaptive coping and problem-solving skills.
Psychological first aid, crisis intervention and critical incident stress management help to reduce the initial distress caused by disasters and critical incidents and short and long-term adaptive functioning via: